There’s poo in my dam

Spokeswoman of Joburg Water, Millicent Kabwe described the problem as “a minor burst pipe” which she said was fixed in July last year.

“This query was logged on 21 July and closed 23 July 2014 and it was reported as a minor burst pipe. Not a sewer leaking into a dam,” said Kabwe in response to questions e-mailed to her by Fourways Review.

Kabwe’s response followed after residents of Farmall’s Sandspruit area in Cosmo City organised a walkabout along the river on Wednesday to identify points of leakage.

The residents are fuming, alleging that the spillage was not solved, adding that it was bringing a foul smell to their dam.

A resident, Anthony Irving said: “Our dam is smelling worse than it did when this fault was reported.”

Irving alleged that nothing was done, even though the problem had been reported to Joburg Water.

Written communications between Joburg City officials seem to suggest that the local authorities were battling to get to the bottom of the problem. Numerous attempts to identify the issue seemed to draw blanks.

Cornelius Coetzee of Joburg Water, however, confirmed in March this year to Silver Mabusela of the Office of the City Manager that they attended to the sewage spill into the dam at the Kya Sands informal settlement.

In the same month, a Mr Neel wrote to Mabusela confessing that the problem was never solved.

“Today the team is busy repairing a broken 150mm sewerage main in Epson Road in Kya Sands and then tomorrow I will walk the river myself because no one can supply us with proper info to get to a point to start looking for other problems,” said Neels in a mail written on 31 March.

But two months later, the same foul smell remains.

Residents have invited the local councillor and officials from Joburg Water for a walkabout on 13 May.

Read previous stories about the foul smells coming from Farmall’s dams.

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